Valentina Greco

Valentina Greco is an Italian-born biologist who teaches at the Yale School of Medicine as the Carolyn Walch Slayman Professor of Genetics and is an Associate Professor in the Cell Biology and Dermatology departments. Her research focuses on the role of skin stem cells in tissue regeneration.

Valentina Greco
Born
Palermo, Italy
Alma materUniversity of Palermo European Molecular Biology Laboratory/Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
SpouseAntonio J. Giraldez
Children2
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorSuzanne Eaton
Other academic advisorsElaine Fuchs

Personal life

Valentino Greco was born in Palermo, Italy, where she lived through her undergraduate program. After being denied admission to the graduate school at the University of Palermo, she was encouraged by her friend Eugenia Piddini to apply to the graduate program at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.[1] Upon completion of her PhD, Greco moved to the United States and completed her postdoctoral work. She eventually decided to start her own lab, using a high-risk/high-reward approach alongside another Yale principal investigator, Ann Haberman.[2]

Greco is married to fellow Yale faculty member Antonio J. Giraldez, and they have two children, Lola and Gael.[1]

Education

Greco received her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Palermo, Italy. In the final two years of her undergraduate program, Greco studied tumor suppressor genes in mitotic cell division in the lab of Aldo di Leonardo.[1] Greco then began graduate school in 1998 and received her PhD in 2002 from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory/Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (EMBL/MPI-CBG) in Heidelberg, Germany working with advisor Suzanne Eaton on tissue growth mechanisms.[3] She did her postdoctoral studies at Rockefeller University with Elaine Fuchs studying the mechanisms for stem cell activation during hair regeneration.[4]

Research

The Greco lab currently studies stem cells in organ regeneration, with the goal of determining how cells are maintained despite mutation, cellular turnover, and injury.[5] Greco focuses on the mammalian hair follicle in mice to study cellular homeostasis, wound repair, and cancer. Her lab uses techniques such as in vivo imaging to track individual stem cells over time and understand how these cells act during homeostasis and respond to tissue injury.[5] Her lab has worked extensively on the importance of the spatial organization of stem cell niches[6][7] and shown that these stem cells coordinate their differentiation and migration[8] and can clear away dead cells and tumor-like growths,[9] repairing significant faults in tissue structure.[10]

Greco's research has led to notable discoveries in cell regeneration, namely the mechanism of hair and skin regeneration.[11] Her findings show that hair germ cells are obtained from bulge stem cells, as well as suggest that hair germ cells initiate hair regeneration and stem cells drive the process.[4]

In more recent work, the Greco Lab uses stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy to gain three-dimensional images of cellular structures, and have been using this imaging to examine the brains of mice.[12] In her work with hair follicles and homeostasis, Greco has also determined a link between the lymphatic vessels of the skin and hair follicle development and organization.[13] The ongoing work of the Greco lab is looking to determine how skin reacts to mutations and the contribution of different tissue types to homeostasis.[5]

Awards and honors
  • ISSCR Momentum Award (2021) [14]
  • William Montagna Lectureship at the Society of Investigative Dermatology (SID) annual conference (2020) [15]
  • Yale Postdoctoral Mentoring Award (2019)[16]
  • National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award (2019)[17]
  • Yale Mentoring Award in the Natural Sciences (2018)[3]
  • Class of ‘61 Award, Yale Cancer Center (2017)[3]
  • HHMI Faculty Scholar Award (2017)[18]
  • Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging (2017)[19]
  • Early Career Award, ASCB (2016)[20]
  • Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Scholar (2015)[21]
  • Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Award, New York Stem Cell Foundation (2015)[22]
  • Outstanding Young Investigator Award, ISSCR (2014)[23]
  • Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award (2012)[3]
  • American Skin Association Award (2011)[3]

References
  1. Sedwick, Caitlin (2014-11-24). "Valentina Greco: Got hair?". The Journal of Cell Biology. 207 (4): 436–437. doi:10.1083/jcb.2074pi. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 4242828. PMID 25422370.
  2. Greco, Valentina (November 2016). "The thrill of scientific discovery and leadership with my group". Molecular Biology of the Cell. 27 (21): 3188–3191. doi:10.1091/mbc.E16-06-0373. ISSN 1059-1524. PMC 5170847. PMID 27799490.
  3. "Valentina Greco, PhD". Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  4. Greco, Valentina; Chen, Ting; Rendl, Michael; Schober, Markus; Pasolli, H. Amalia; Stokes, Nicole; Cruz-Racelis, June dela; Fuchs, Elaine (2009-02-06). "A Two-Step Mechanism for Stem Cell Activation during Hair Regeneration". Cell Stem Cell. 4 (2): 155–169. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2008.12.009. ISSN 1934-5909. PMC 2668200. PMID 19200804.
  5. "Research". Greco Lab. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  6. Rompolas, Panteleimon; Mesa, Kailin R.; Greco, Valentina (October 2013). "Spatial organization within a niche as a determinant of stem-cell fate". Nature. 502 (7472): 513–518. Bibcode:2013Natur.502..513R. doi:10.1038/nature12602. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3895444. PMID 24097351.
  7. Rompolas, Panteleimon; Mesa, Kailin R.; Kawaguchi, Kyogo; Park, Sangbum; Gonzalez, David; Brown, Samara; Boucher, Jonathan; Klein, Allon M.; Greco, Valentina (2016-06-17). "Spatiotemporal coordination of stem cell commitment during epidermal homeostasis". Science. 352 (6292): 1471–1474. Bibcode:2016Sci...352.1471R. doi:10.1126/science.aaf7012. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4958018. PMID 27229141.
  8. Park, Sangbum; Gonzalez, David G.; Guirao, Boris; Boucher, Jonathan D.; Cockburn, Katie; Marsh, Edward D.; Mesa, Kailin R.; Brown, Samara; Rompolas, Panteleimon; Haberman, Ann M.; Bellaïche, Yohanns (March 2017). "Tissue-scale coordination of cellular behaviour promotes epidermal wound repair in live mice". Nature Cell Biology. 19 (3): 155–163. doi:10.1038/ncb3472. ISSN 1476-4679. PMC 5581297. PMID 28248302.
  9. Pineda, Cristiana M.; Gonzalez, David G.; Matte-Martone, Catherine; Boucher, Jonathan; Lathrop, Elizabeth; Gallini, Sara; Fons, Nathan R.; Xin, Tianchi; Tai, Karen; Marsh, Edward; Nguyen, Don X. (2019-10-07). "Hair follicle regeneration suppresses Ras-driven oncogenic growth". The Journal of Cell Biology. 218 (10): 3212–3222. doi:10.1083/jcb.201907178. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 6781447. PMID 31488583.
  10. "How Cell Biologists Work: Valentina Greco on cultivating a passionate research team". ASCB. 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  11. "Dr. Valentina Greco Uncovers the Secrets Behind Skin and Hair Regeneration". New York Stem Cell Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  12. Velasco, Mary Grace M.; Zhang, Mengyang; Antonello, Jacopo; Yuan, Peng; Allgeyer, Edward S.; May, Dennis; M’Saad, Ons; Kidd, Phylicia; Barentine, Andrew E. S.; Greco, Valentina; Grutzendler, Jaime (2019-10-02). "3D super-resolution deep-tissue imaging in living mice". bioRxiv: 790212. doi:10.1101/790212. S2CID 208605520.
  13. Kam, Chen Y; Greco, Valentina (2019-10-01). "Lymph vessels find a hairy niche". The EMBO Journal. 38 (19): e103219. doi:10.15252/embj.2019103219. ISSN 0261-4189. PMC 6769378. PMID 31531872.
  14. "Valentina Greco Receives the 2021 ISSCR Momentum Award". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-09.
  15. "Valentina Greco, PhD | 2020 SID Annual Meeting | Speakers". SID Annual Meeting. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  16. "Mentoring | Office for Postdoctoral Affairs". postdocs.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  17. Norman, Anita (2019-10-01). "Yale scientists win NIH awards for pioneering work". YaleNews. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  18. "2016 Faculty Scholars". 2016 Faculty Scholars. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  19. "Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging". glennfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  20. "Valentina Greco and Bo Huang Win 2016 Early Career Award". ASCB. 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  21. "Current Awardees". emallinckrodtfoundation. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  22. "NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Investigators Archives". New York Stem Cell Foundation. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  23. "ISSCR Dr. Susan Lim Award for Outstanding Young Investigator". www.isscr.org. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
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